The present disclosure relates to pickup truck bed tonneau covers, and more particularly to support structures for such tonneau covers with flexible textile coverings.
This section provides background information related to the present disclosure which is not necessarily prior art. This section also provides a general summary of the disclosure, and is not a comprehensive disclosure of its full scope or all of its features, nor are the features summarized herein essential aspects of the disclosure.
Pickup truck tonneau covers can include an outer frame with several intermediate cross-car rails spanning between opposing sides of the outer rail. These intermediate rails span the cross-car width of the pickup truck bed and are unsupported, except at their ends. A flexible fabric cover can be supported by and coupled to this frame and intermediate rail supporting structure.
Pickup truck beds can have perimeters of various configurations. Some pickup truck bed perimeters are rectangular; having 90 degree corners. Other pickup truck bed perimeters are slightly trapezoidal in shape; having front corner angles that are slightly less than 90 degrees and rear corner angles that are slightly greater than 90 degrees. The lengths of the sides can also vary depending upon the size of the pickup truck bed, although the length of the perimeter's front and back typically remains constant. As seen in FIGS. 3-5, the corner angles and side perimeter dimensions can be different, even for the same make and model pickup truck, depending upon whether a particular pickup truck has a standard cab (FIG. 3), an extended cab (FIG. 5) or an intermediate length cab (FIG. 4). Thus, manufacturing specific components for each angular and dimensional option unduly multiplies the need for expensive tooling components and/or machining operations (e.g., associated with creating coupling components at differing locations) in order to meet all the various angular and dimensional configurations.
The need for expensive tooling and/or machining operations can be reduced by using pickup truck bed tonneau cover components that are universally capable of use for a variety of bed perimeter configurations, and for the full variety of positions within the resulting variety of pickup truck bed tonneau covers.
In aspects of the present disclosure methods of manufacturing a pickup truck bed tonneau cover and a variety of pickup bed tonneau covers are provided. For example, universal cross-section outer frame rail stock is cut to appropriate lengths to create all front, rear, and side frame rails of the multiple versions of the tonneau cover. First and second universal corner bracket members are provided that can be coupled together in a plurality of angular corner positions. Pairs of the first and second universal corner bracket members are adjusted relative to each other and each pair of first and second universal corner bracket members is coupled together, fixing the pair into one of the angular corner positions to create all corner brackets of the multiple versions of the tonneau cover. Universal cross-section intermediate rail stock is cut to appropriate lengths to create all intermediate rails of the multiple versions of the tonneau cover. Universal intermediate rail brackets are provided that can be coupled to the intermediate rails at a plurality of angular bracket positions. Universal intermediate rail brackets are coupled to each side rail member to provide opposing pairs of the universal intermediate rail brackets for each intermediate rail of the multiple versions of the tonneau cover. Each end the intermediate rails are adjusted into one of the plurality of angular bracket positions and coupled to a corresponding opposing pair of universal intermediate rail brackets to affix the intermediate rails into one of the angular bracket positions.
In other aspects of the present disclosure a pickup bed tonneau cover and a variety of pickup bed tonneau covers are provided. For example, an outer frame includes a front rail, a rear rail, and a plurality of side rails, and all of the front rail, the rear rail and the side rails of the variety of pickup bed tonneau covers have a same universal frame rail cross-section throughout their length. Each of the variety of tonneau covers has a front pair and a rear pair of corner brackets. Each corner bracket includes first and second universal corner bracket members configured to be coupled together in different fixed positions to form one of a plurality of potential angles. The potential angles include angles that are both greater than and less than 90 degrees. For each of the variety of tonneau covers, each front pair of corner brackets is coupled to the front rail and an adjacent one of the side rails, and each rear pair of corner brackets is coupled to the rear rail and an adjacent one of the side rails. A plurality of intermediate rails span between the side rails of each outer frame, and all intermediate rails of the variety of pickup bed tonneau cover have a uniform intermediate rail cross-section throughout their length. A universal intermediate rail bracket is coupled to each side rail of each outer frame to provide opposing pairs of the universal intermediate rail brackets. The universal intermediate rail brackets are configured to be coupled to opposing ends of each intermediate rail at any of a corresponding plurality of potential angles.
In another aspect of the disclosure a pickup bed tonneau cover includes a plurality of outer rails each have a uniform cross-section throughout its length. The plurality of outer rails are joined together via hinges and corner brackets to form the outer frame of the pickup bed tonneau cover. The uniform cross-section of the outer rails defines, along the entire length of the outer rails, an elongated seal coupling channel and an elongated step adjacent to, and protruding downwardly beyond, the seal coupling channel. A compressible seal member is coupled to the outer rails via the seal member coupling extending throughout the length of the outer rails. The compressible seal member has a non-compressed state in which the distal portion of the compressible seal member extends downwardly past the adjacent elongated step. When the pickup truck bed tonneau cover is mounted over a perimeter of a corresponding pickup truck bed, the downwardly protruding elongated step member acts as a continuous elongated stop by contacting against the perimeter to limit compression of the compressible seal member. This may occur under normal static loads, or may only occur during dynamic or excessive downward loads (e.g., snow loads) on the tonneau cover.
Further areas of applicability will become apparent from the description provided herein. The description and specific examples in this summary and in the following description are intended for purposes of illustration only and are not intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure.
Example embodiments will now be described more fully with reference to the accompanying drawings. Corresponding reference numerals indicate corresponding parts throughout the several views of the drawings.